Advancements in communication technologies have permitted the development, deployment, and popular usage of new types of communication systems. Amongst such advancements are advancements that permit the communication of communication data at increased throughput rates and in manners that facilitate recovery of the informational content of the data when communicated in non-ideal communication conditions. Due to the implementation of such advancements, new types of communication services are, and shall likely continue to become, available.
A radio communication system is exemplary of a type of communication system that has benefited through the adoption of advancements in communication technologies. In a radio communication system, at least a portion of a communication path upon which communication data is communicated to effectuate a communication service is formed upon a radio link. Radio channels are defined upon the radio link, and the communication data is communicated upon the radio channels.
When radio channels are used upon which to communicate communication data, the need otherwise to utilize a wireline upon which to form communication channels is obviated. Because a wireline connection is not required to interconnect communication stations that form parties to a communication session in which a communication service is effectuated, the communication service is effectuable between locations at which the formation of wireline connections would be inconvenient or impractical. That is to say, through use of a radio communication system, a communication service is able to be effectuated even though effectuation of the communication service would be impractical or unfeasible by way of a conventional, wireline communication system.
Amongst the advancements in communication technologies are advancements in digital communication techniques. Digital communication techniques are utilized in radio, as well as other types of, communication systems. Digital communication techniques, in general, permit the efficiency by which communication data is communicated relative to communications effectuated through the use of conventional, analog communication techniques. In a digital communication technique, information that is to be communicated is digitized. And, typically, once digitized, the data is formatted into packets, or frames, according to a selected data formatting protocol. The data packets are communicated between a set of communication stations forming communication source and communication destination nodes. Once delivered to the destination node, the informational content of the communication data is recovered.
Communication services that are effectuated by way of the World Wide Web (www) typically communicate packet-formatted communication data. Content retrieval, as well as other communication services, are regularly effectuated between a content provider and a recipient station, typically a computer terminal, by way of the World Wide Web. Conventionally, the computer terminal and the content provider are connected by way of wireline connections with a packet data network, e.g., the Internet, backbone.
Protocols have been promulgated and standardized that relate to packet-based communications. The Internet Protocol (IP) is an exemplary packet-formatting protocol. The Internet Protocol is typically implemented at a link layer in communication systems. Standards relating to the Internet Protocol include, e.g., the IPv4 and IPv6 versions. In these versions of the Internet Protocol, operational parameters as well as the logical configuration of the IP network are set forth.
Increasingly, packet-based communications, including communication services that are effectuated by way of the World Wide Web, utilize mobile nodes as source or destination nodes. The prefix identifying the mobile node does not necessarily, and regularly does not, identify the location at which the mobile node is positioned. While the mobility of the mobile node is generally advantageous, unique problems associated with such mobility require special entities to be defined and special procedures to be carried out. For instance, home agents and care of (c/o) addresses are defined.
Data packets that are to be delivered to a mobile node are generally addressed to the home agent associated with the mobile node. However, due to the mobility of a mobile node, the mobile node might not be in an area that the home agent encompasses. Through the use of a care of address, the data packet delivered to a home agent is rerouted to be delivered to an area in which the mobile node is located. That is to say, a home agent identifies a home address, i.e., a home sub-network, associated with the mobile node. And, the care of address identifies a temporary, or visited, location of the mobile node. When packet data is to be communicated to the mobile node, the packet data is addressed, and routed to, the home agent of the mobile node. The home agent is provided with the identity of the care of address of the mobile node, and the packet data is re-routable to the care of address and the mobile node located in a visited network associated therewith.
Mobile IP (Internet Protocol) functionality is provided in some cellular communication systems. And, deployment of such functionality is anticipated in others. Mobile IP refers generally to a protocol that provides roaming capability to a mobile node during a data communication session, i.e., a data connection, as a mobile node roams between, e.g., separate packet data service nodes (PDSNs). Mobile IP provides IP-level mobility. Pursuant to mobile IP procedures, a mobile node is required to register with a home agent by specifying the address, i.e., the care of address, through which the mobile node can be reached. The home agent becomes responsible for forwarding all packet data destined for the mobile node to the care of address. The care of address forwards the data packets delivered thereto to the mobile node. In a cellular communication system operable pursuant to an existing CDMA (Code-Division, Multiple-Access) operating standard, the packet data service node acts as the care of address. And, the mobile node registers with the home agent by specifying the address of the packet data service node as the care of address.
The network operator of a cellular communication system provisions a mobile node with operator-specific data to facilitate operation of the mobile node in the system operated by the operator. An operating specification, such as the IS-683-B operating specification, defines a protocol by which to provision a mobile node with the operator-specific data. The operating specification defines the various objects that are permitted to be provisioned and the format of the objects as well as the messages that are used by which to provide the mobile node with the objects and data. The actual data or link layer mechanisms by which the messages are exchanged are, however, not specified. Internet Over The Air provisioning (IOTA) is a mechanism by which the IS-683-B, or other appropriate, messages and objects are exchanged over an Internet Protocol data connection. Generally, the IOTA messages are exchanged over an HTTP protocol that, in turn, runs over the TCP/IP (Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) protocol.
Conventional deployment of the Internet Over The Air provisioning schemes require that the Internet Over The Air sessions be initiated on a separate mobile IP profile. That is to say, pursuant to the IOTA scheme, a mobile IP session is required to be set up by the mobile node with a specific home agent for the IOTA scheme and to use the specific mobile IP parameters for the IOTA scheme. The home agent and the mobile IP parameters used pursuant to the IOTA scheme sometimes differ with the home agent and parameters used pursuant to normal data connections to effectuate normal data communication services.
At least one wireless Internet Protocol network standard, the IS-835 standard, permits multiple mobile IP sessions to be performed, i.e., run, over the same time. Each of the sessions is associated with a separate IP endpoint address. Existing configurations, however, permit only one mobile IP session to exist between the mobile node and the network infrastructure of the system.
As multiple, concurrent data sessions are generally not permitted, an IOTA provisioning session is unable to be performed at the same time as a normal data connection used to effectuate a normal communication service. To provision a mobile node with IOTA provisioning information, various use-case scenarios are conventionally used to preempt one session and to start another. These use-case scenarios are generally complicated.
And, because the data sessions cannot run concurrently, an IOTA provisioning session is not transparent to the user of the mobile node. While an IOTA provisioning session is being performed, the user of the mobile node is unable to perform another data service by way of the mobile node. If the user pre-empts the IOTA provisioning session, the provisioning process of the mobile node is delayed. And, the use-cases that would provide for the preempting of a normal data communication session with an IOTA session, or vice-versa, increases the complexity required of the control entities of the mobile node.
What is needed, therefore, is a manner by which to permit concurrent operation of more than one mobile IP data communication sessions at a mobile node. By providing for multiple mobile IP sessions, IOTA provisioning would be performable concurrent with an ongoing data communication session.
It is in light of this background information related to radio communication systems that provide mobile IP functionality that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.